Slightly more Americans applied for jobless benefits last week, but layoffs remained in the same recent healthy range. The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose by 5,000 to 219,000 for the week ending February 15, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts projected that 215,000 new applications would be filed. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs. The four-week average, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 1,000 to 215,250. The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of February 8 rose to 1.87 million, an increase of 24,000…
Author: MAK Gojar
Janno Lieber, head of the M.T.A., has helped steer the tolling program through lawsuits and a last-minute pause. He now will face off with President Trump. Janno Lieber, head of the M.T.A., has helped steer the tolling program through lawsuits and a last-minute pause. He now will face off with President Trump. Janno Lieber, the head of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, had won. Congestion pricing, the tolling program designed to cut down traffic in Manhattan and raise billions of dollars for the region’s aging transit infrastructure, had survived an onslaught. Attempts by lawmakers to narrow its scope. A wave…
A Utah House committee passed a bill that would allow more students to qualify for free school meals — but not before some Republican lawmakers argued that increasing the state’s role in food assistance could contradict the “principles of limited government.” HB100 aims to expand eligibility for free school meals to more Utah families, addressing the ongoing issue of student lunch debt and the strain on community food assistance organizations. A Utah House committee passed a bill that would allow more students to qualify for free school meals — but not before some Republican lawmakers argued that increasing the state’s…
It’s small, plain and quite run-down, but this former Latter-day Saint chapel tucked on a residential street in Central City is steeped in Utah history. A small but historic Latter-day Saint chapel in Salt Lake City is slated for restoration. It’s small, plain and quite run-down, but this former Latter-day Saint chapel tucked on a residential street in Central City is steeped in Utah history. Now the drooping 142-year-old building at 438 E. 700 South in Salt Lake City, known to some as the Danish Chapel, is to be preserved and renovated into a home instead of being torn down.…
Salt Lake City is adopting new temporary zoning rules on its public lands for six months in hopes of expediting reconstruction and improvements slated at West, Highland and East high schools, along with other buildings across the school district. The tweaked zoning rules aim to to speed up work on West, Highland and East high schools Salt Lake City is adopting new temporary zoning rules on its public lands for six months in hopes of expediting reconstruction and improvements slated at West, Highland and East high schools, along with other buildings across the school district. The streamlined land use regulations,…
Logan • After months of intense opposition from neighbors, the fate of a row of century-old trees is decided. Logan officials are moving forward with plans to install a waterline under the north end of Canyon Road, requiring the removal of beloved century-old trees. Logan • After months of intense opposition from neighbors, the fate of a row of century-old trees is decided. Logan officials announced Tuesday that they will move ahead with a plan to chop down and rip out the much-admired trees on the north end of Canyon Road to clear the way for a new waterline that…
Provo • Provo’s little airport has seen enormous growth since its last renovation, and it seems poised to double in size thanks to millions promised by the county. Since 2020, the airport’s demand has ballooned, surging from 77,217 people boarding a plane up to 448,972 last year — a 481% increase. The “fastest growing commercial airport in the entire country” now plans to get bigger, its director said. Provo • Provo’s little airport has seen enormous growth since its last renovation, and it seems poised to double in size thanks to millions promised by the county. Utah County has pledged…
BERLIN — Germany’s Rheinmetall will provide logistics support for military movements within and across the country under a major new contract, the company announced. The deal comes as part of a wider German effort to remake the Bundeswehr into a more combat-ready force and efforts to prepare German society for future crises, including an armed defense of the country. The contract, estimated to be worth around €260 million ($271 million) over the course of the next three years, was announced by the German arms maker on Feb. 19. It entails providing and running housing, catering, waste disposal, energy supply and…
A Utah House committee passed a bill that would allow more students to qualify for free school meals — but not before some Republican lawmakers argued that increasing the state’s role in food assistance could contradict the “principles of limited government.” HB100 aims to expand eligibility for free school meals to more Utah families, addressing the ongoing issue of student lunch debt and the strain on community food assistance organizations. A Utah House committee passed a bill that would allow more students to qualify for free school meals — but not before some Republican lawmakers argued that increasing the state’s…
Dear Eric: I have a friend who I’ve been friends with for about 10 years. We both share views that lean left. In the past we’ve shared many dinners discussing the inequities of our country and other political type topics. My friend is constantly lamenting about how unfair our society is and is super empathetic to the plight of the disadvantaged, which I understand. My friend has two homes paid off, retired early and is sitting on tons of money. She could actually be doing something with her own money to physically and financially help the underserved, but she doesn’t.…
Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 20, according to the Tribune’s archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 70 degrees (2017) Low temperature: Minus 9 degrees (1896) Precipitation: 2.1 inches (2018) Snowfall: 2.8 inches (1989) 1852: The first direct train from the East arrived in Chicago to the sound of a firing cannon and the sight of an immense crowd on the Michigan Southern Railroad. Edward “Butch” O’Hare waves during a parade in his honor in his hometown of…
Today is Thursday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2025. There are 314 days left in the year. Today in history: On Feb. 20, 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department, the predecessor of the U.S. Postal Service. Also on this date: In 1862, William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, died at the White House from what was believed to be typhoid fever. In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld, 7-2, compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public’s…
“The dictator craze,” they called it. In the worst of the Great Depression, a time of 25% unemployment, some called for an American-style dictatorship. Democracy wasn’t working very well, time for a change, argued the American Legion veteran’s organization: In a 1932 resolution, it declared the “present situation” too threatening for “existing political methods.” Some in the media echoed the sentiment. Barron’s magazine acknowledged the paradox of a dictatorship course-correcting a broken capitalist democracy. But it was worth a shot, as long as our dictator was a “genial and lighthearted dictator … a mild species of dictatorship.” Hollywood loved the…
Filmmakers tinker with the question of tone from project to project, many not as much as they should. But writer-director Osgood Perkins has no problem with tonal adjustment. His recent and most popular feature, last year’s “Longlegs,” worked in a sustained register of steady, clammy, creepily effective dread. Perkins makes a hard left into merrily grotesque slapstick with his new film, his fifth, “The Monkey.” The knob has been turned to a distinctly different tonal setting: Merry death, dismemberment and nicely timed sight gags, rolling along, with a dash of sincere parent/child bonding. Essentially a series of sketch-comedy illustrations of…
“Shoulda been a movie” is my battle cry about so many streaming series. But I’m not sure Netflix’s “Zero Day” is sturdy enough to even work as a stand-alone film. The six-episode conspiracy thriller starring Robert De Niro is too convoluted to generate real intrigue. De Niro plays a former president, named George Mullen, who is called back into action by the current president (Angela Bassett) after a nationwide cyber attack. Who is behind it? Mullen heads up the commission tasked with finding out, and he’s been given all kinds of powers that make the Constitution moot. Complicating matters are…
As if Chicago didn’t have enough problems. Here comes Godzilla, as in Gojira, the Big G, Tokyo’s Own. “Da King of da Monsters has come to da Windy City!” a shocked CTA train operator gulps in “Godzilla vs. Chicago,” the first issue of a limited “Godzilla vs. America” series by IDW, the publisher of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Star Trek” and “Goosebumps” comics. Unfortunately, Blue Line service is interrupted. Also impacted by a giant radioactive lizard tramping through Illinois: Soldier Field, the Bears, Michigan Avenue, Interstate 94, Navy Pier, Millennium Park, Garfield Park Conservatory, Cottage Grove, hot dog stands,…
American Airlines is planning to boost flying capacity out of O’Hare International Airport this year, marking a departure from the airline’s pullback at its Chicago hub in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The carrier will fly to nine new domestic and international cities from Chicago in 2025 and use larger planes, American announced Thursday. The service additions will mean American is scheduling 25% more seats out of Chicago this summer and 22% more flights than last year, according to the airline. All told, the airline said it would have more space on flights out of Chicago than ever before.…
BOSTON — The U.S. and Canadian hockey teams tried to skate back the geopolitical tension that has infiltrated the 4 Nations Face-Off as they looked ahead to the championship game Thursday night for what has turned into one of the best international hockey tournaments in decades. Setting aside the animosity that has been building over tariff talks, anthems and annexation, the players and coaches said they wanted to leave their fans with an appreciation for the game like the one they picked up from iconic events like the United States’ “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union at the…
MILAN — The United Arab Emirates’ conglomerate Edge Group has announced the expansion of its international multi-domain testing site for weapons, aiming to boost the range’s utility in exercising drone operations. The XRange, of which a mock-up was unveiled at the Dubai Airshow in 2023, is located southwest of Abu Dhabi on the 135-square-mile island of Abu Al Abyad, the equivalent of nearly twice the area of Washington, D.C. The site’s expansion will include the construction of a secondary 1.2-kilometer runway to support unmanned aerial systems’ take-off and landing, two new emergency runways to boost recovery capabilities, and a new,…
BOSTON — The U.S. and Canadian hockey teams tried to skate back the geopolitical tension that has infiltrated the 4 Nations Face-Off as they looked ahead to the championship game Thursday night for what has turned into one of the best international hockey tournaments in decades. Setting aside the animosity that has been building over tariff talks, anthems and annexation, the players and coaches said they wanted to leave their fans with an appreciation for the game like the one they picked up from iconic events like the United States’ “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union at the…